Shocking Video Footage of Rhinoceros Attacking a Vehicle Full of Terrified Tourists

Ethan Tremblay February 6th 2017 Entertainment

Animals are unpredictable. You never know what they're truly thinking or what their intentions are. Heck, even when it comes to domestic animals there's a slim chance you can get clawed to death by a friend's cat or sexually assaulted by a relative's dog. Now imagine going to a habitat of the most wild and dangerous animals on the planet. What begins as harmless, adventurous fun can turn into a horrific, heart racing scene in just a matter of seconds. For instance, what happened on this African animal safari recently will have you thinking twice about traveling in the wild. Take a look for yourself.

Angry Black Rhino

Shortly you will be seeing graphic video footage of the terrifying moment an angry rhino suffered a serious case of road rage - and charged straight into a group of tourists trapped inside a car. Above is a screenshot from the video you are about to see. The remarkable incident shows the animal first taking an unusual interest in the Toyota truck parked on a dusty road next to its grassland home.

The footage of the video you are about to witness was taken in Etosha National Park in Namibia by Alexandra Poier, who was sitting inside a nearby car at the time. The 48-year-old said the group of tourists inside the car escaped from the vehicle unhurt. However, when you watch the video, it seems impossible that no one got hurt, or died.

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Etosha National Park

Etosha National Park is a national park in northwestern Namibia. Etosha National Park spans an area of 22,270 square kilometres (8,600 sq mi) and gets its name from the large Etosha pan which is almost entirely within the park. The park is home to hundreds of species of mammals, birds and reptiles, including several threatened and endangered species such as the black rhinoceros.

The national park of Etosha has a savanna desert climate. The annual mean average temperature is 26 degrees C. In winter, the mean low temperatures are in the 6 degrees C neighborhood,and in summer they can exceed 45 degrees C. There is a big daily thermal amplitude, and saisonière. In some years and in some places there is no rain at all. When there is rain, however, dry rivers quickly come alive.

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Alexandra Poier

The black rhinoceros, which inhabits areas across southern and eastern Africa, is considered endangered and an unknown number of the animals live in the 8,600 sq m Etosha National Park. Weighing up to 3,100lbs and with an ability to charge at 35mph, they are notorious for their aggression and willingness to run at any object that is unfamiliar. You will soon see the aggression of a black rhino in the video footage.

Alexandra Poier, who witnessed the horrifying incident, said: "I think the rhino saw a threat and that is why he attacked. To be honest, I was quite scared because it could have been our car. It happened very quickly and suddenly. After he went to the side of our car and we left quickly. The tour guide said this was a rare event."

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3100 Pounds

Although the rhinoceros is referred to as black, its colors vary from brown to grey. An adult black rhinoceros stands 140-180 cm (55-71 in) high at the shoulder and is 3-3.75 m (9.8-12.3 ft) in length. An adult typically weighs from 800 to 1,400 kg (1,760 to 3,090 lb), however unusually large male specimens have been reported at up to 2,199-2,896 kg (4,848-6,385 lb). The females are smaller than the males. Two horns on the skull are made of keratin with the larger front horn typically 50 cm (20 in) long, exceptionally up to 140 cm (55 in).

The longest known black rhinoceros horn measured nearly 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in length.Sometimes, a third, smaller horn may develop. These horns are used for defense, intimidation, and digging up roots and breaking branches during feeding. The black rhino is smaller than the white rhino, and is close in size to the Javan Rhino of Indonesia. It has a pointed and prehensile upper lip, which it uses to grasp leaves and twigs when feeding.

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Thick Layered Skin

The white rhinoceros has square lips used for eating grass. The black rhinoceros can also be distinguished from the white rhinoceros by its size, smaller skull, and ears; and by the position of the head, which is held higher than the white rhinoceros, since the black rhinoceros is a browser and not a grazer.

Their thick-layered skin helps to protect the rhino from thorns and sharp grasses. Their skin harbors external parasites, such as mites and ticks, which may be eaten by oxpeckers and egrets. Such behaviour was originally thought to be an example of mutualism, but recent evidence suggests that oxpeckers may be parasites instead, feeding on rhino blood. It is commonly assumed that black rhinos have poor eyesight, relying more on hearing and smell. However, studies have shown that their eyesight is comparatively good, at about the level of a rabbit. Their ears have a relatively wide rotational range to detect sounds. An excellent sense of smell alerts rhinos to the presence of predators.

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Behavior

Black rhinoceros are generally thought to be solitary, with the only strong bond between a mother and her calf. In addition, males and females have a consort relationship during mating, also subadults and young adults frequently form loose associations with older individuals of either sex. They are not very territorial and often intersect other rhino territories. Home ranges vary depending on season and the availability of food and water. Generally they have smaller home ranges and larger density in habitats that have plenty of food and water available, and vice versa if resources are not readily available.

Black rhinoceros in captivity and reservations sleep patterns have been recently studied to show that males sleep longer on average than females by nearly double the time. Other factors that play a role in their sleeping patterns is the location of where they decide to sleep. Although they do not sleep any longer in captivity, they do sleep at different times due to their location in captivity, or section of the park.

They Are Extremely Aggressive

The black rhino has a reputation for being extremely aggressive, and charges readily at perceived threats. They have even been observed to charge tree trunks and termite mounds. Black rhinos will fight each other, and they have the highest rates of mortal combat recorded for any mammal: about 50% of males and 30% of females die from combat-related injuries.Adult rhinos normally have no natural predators, thanks to their imposing size as well as their thick skin and deadly horns. However, adult black rhinos have fallen prey to crocodiles in exceptional circumstances. Calves and, very seldom, small sub-adults may be preyed upon by lions as well.

Black rhinoceros follow the same trails that elephants use to get from foraging areas to water holes. They also use smaller trails when they are browsing. They are very fast and can get up to speeds of 55 kilometres per hour (34 mph) running on their toes.

What Do They Eat?

The black rhinoceros is a herbivorous browser that eats leafy plants, branches, shoots, thorny wood bushes, and fruit. The optimum habitat seems to be one consisting of thick scrub and bushland, often with some woodland, which supports the highest densities. Their diet can reduce the amount of woody plants, which may benefit grazers (who focus on leaves and stems of grass), but not competing browsers (who focus on leaves, stems of trees, shrubs or herbs). It has been known to eat up to 220 species of plants.

They have a significantly restricted diet with a preference for a few key plant species and a tendency to select leafy species in the dry season. The plant species they seem to be most attracted to when not in dry season are the woody plants. There are 18 species of woody plants known to the diet of the black rhinoceros, and 11 species that could possibly be a part of their diet too. Black rhinoceros also have a tendency to choose food based on quality over quantity, where researchers find more populations in areas where the food has better quality.

How They Communicate

Rhinos use several forms of communication. Due to their solitary nature, scent marking is often used to identify themselves to other black rhinos. Urine spraying occurs on trees and bushes, around water holes and feeding areas. Females urine spray more often when receptive for breeding. Defecation sometimes occurs in the same spot used by different rhinos, such as around feeding stations and watering tracks.

Coming upon these spots, rhinos will smell to see who is in the area and add their own marking. When presented with adult feces, male and female rhinoceroses respond differently than when they are presented with subadult feces. The urine and feces of one black rhinoceros helps other black rhinoceroses to determine its age, sex, and identity. Less commonly they will rub their heads or horns against tree trunks to scent-mark.

Frightening Incident

View the video of the frightening incident below. Alright, let this be a lesson to all of you guys who think playing nature and its living creatures is cool. Please stop going to these territories where wild animals live. We're pretty sure they're sick and tired of us messing with their habitats, approaching them with dumb grins on our faces, and taking flash photography of them. If animals could talk, could you imagine the horror stories they probably have involving humans?

If we are to judge the intelligence/empathy of the human race purely based on how we treat other living creatures we'd have to say we're at the bottom of barrel. Of course this was a rare accident, but why wouldn't a rhino be pissed about the presence of humans, they're only a couple left. Can you imagine there being 5,000 people left on an entire continent and trying to find other people to interact with. Anyways, let's preserve what we haven't already destroyed and let nature take its course. Donate to save the rhinos or any other endangered animal if you can.